Dino Crisis 4
by Tsaalyo Phoenix
Summary: Regina returned to her time with the Third Energy research, but there's still the matter of fixing the timelines... and saving Dylan and Paula.    Since this game will probably never come, I'll write it.
1. Prologue

Leaving Dylan and Paula behind was something that haunted Regina every moment of every day for the past year. She replayed the whole event over and over in her mind, trying to think of something she could have done differently, something _they_ could have done differently, so they could have made it out together. Maybe they should have tried lifting the computer from the shorter end rather than the broad end. Maybe they should have blasted the computer with the chain mine gun or the anti-tank rifle. Maybe they should have...

But it never helped. Either Regina knew this idea or that idea wouldn't have worked, or she realized it just might have worked after all and she failed those two by not thinking about it then. Even worse, how did she not foresee those computers falling, anyway? A scenario like that was textbook in training, how had she ignored the possibility?

And that thought process was one that had repeated over and over, plagued Regina every single day since she returned with that damn research disk. How many walls or tables or other hard surfaces had she punched in anger, how many tears had she shed, how many nights had she spent laying awake in bed, she lost count. And even today, the pain and regret hadn't lessened in the least.

Whoever came up with the seven stages of grief was full of crap.

Regina had promised Dylan that she would return for them – create some kind of time paradox to allow her to go back and rescue them before the facility detonated. But she knew that was impossible. Ignoring the headaches of figuring out how Regina could show up at the last minute to same Dylan and Paula while Past Regina was still in the room without screwing up the timeline so bad that the whole thing didn't happen at all, how would she show up at such a precise moment? And even if she could, with what tool could she lift that colossal computer and help Dylan drag Paula to the time gate in the ten seconds they had remaining when Regina left them behind? No matter how Regina sliced it, she had promised the impossible.

When she returned with the research disk and apprised her superiors of the situation, two months of deliberation followed. Her superiors weren't all that interested in risking dozens of lives to go back and save two, but they were concerned with the fact that animals from 65 million years ago were thrown 3 million years ahead. They had screwed up the timelines left right and center over the past few years, and the scientists had now managed to convince the government of the importance of putting everything back to where it all was. And so, over the past year, the Third Energy research was used to perfect the time gate system, and now, the mission was on.

The plan was twofold. First, they would use some new timegate equipment, dubbed the _One Way Ticket_, to send the prehistoric jungle and all dinosaurs therein back to the Cretaceous period. Using the Third Energy research, the scientists had managed to create equipment that would only send nonmetals through time, which would allow it to send the plants and animals back through time while leaving most structures and other man-made things in place. With the dinosaurs gone, they could then get to work on returning Edward City and all other human influences back to their respective places and times.

The problem with this, though, was the fact that Dylan and Paula were, of course, nonmetal things. They would be sent to the Cretaceous along with everything else. Regina tried to protest to her superiors about this, but it was no use. They refused to risk any more lives to save two.

No man left behind? _Garbage_.

Still, Regina requested to assist in this mission, in hopes of convincing her superiors in the field to help save Dylan and Paula, if it was possible.

The mission was to take maybe ten minutes. Regina was among the soldiers – 100 of them – sent simply to guard the technicians and their equipment. The technicians would activate the equipment, setting it to a timer that would allow everyone to return home before they too were sent to the Cretaceous, and that was it. Bing bang boom, done.

And so, Regina sat in one of the several transport boats sent back into the displaced jungle, among 19 other soldiers in this particular boat. They calculated the absolute epicenter of the displaced Cretaceous environment, and had to set the equipment up specifically there. The equipment would be the epicenter of an effective radius, so it had to be placed in the center, lest it send the native plant and animal life from the future back to the past.

"Landfall in two minutes!" The pilot called out.

"Alright, ladies and gentlemen, this is it." The sergeant said, standing. "We only have to stay alive for ten minutes, and if you can't do that, you've got no right to be in the military! Suit up, move it!"

Everyone got to their feet and retrieved their weapons from the storage shelves above. M16 assault rifles for all. Soldiers in the other boats would also be carrying various heavier weapons. Regina told her superiors exactly how well the first ten minutes went the last time they were here, and they had no intention of letting that happen again.

"The drop zone for the equipment is 35 feet inland." The sergeant continued. "The second those doors open, coordinate with the others and form a defensive semicircle around our landing zone. If you see anything moving, make it stop, do you get me?"

"We get you, sir!" Everyone said, more or less in unison.

The boat began to slow down as it approached the shore. After a few seconds, it began to slowly spin around, the rear entry doors being turned to face the shore. The boat propelled itself backwards, getting as close to the shore as possible.

This anticipation took Regina back to the last time they were here. Awaiting her first steps into the prehistoric jungle, being all suited up, dozens of soldiers at her side, almost eager to go out an take on whatever the Cretaceous threw at her. But that feeling was quickly masked by a feeling of dread. The last time Regina was here, she had her first encounter with dinosaurs to look back on. Minimally armed, she barely survived encounters with even infant raptors. The fact that she was armed with much heavier weapons and accompanied by dozens of other soldiers gave her the anxious eagerness that time, but remembering the butchered corpses, the dozens of times she had to cheat death against raptors and rexes, wandering dark hallways with two bullets left in her pistol, masked all that eagerness.

This time, Regina knew that her weapons could take dozens of raptors... hell, she knew they could take a Rex on no problem, so the terrors of her first encounter with the dinosaurs was mostly gone. This time, though, her dread came from the last time she came here with dozens of soldiers armed to the teeth. It took maybe five minutes for virtually everyone she travelled with to either be separated or killed. And what was the difference between that visit and this one? Not a whole lot.

Regina wiped the sweat from her brow and waited for the boat to hit the shore.

"Regina, you're the veteran, you take point." The sergeant commanded.

"Yes, sir." Regina replied.

The boat jerked lightly as it hit bottom. This was as close to shore as they were getting.

The doors slid open, hitting everyone in the boat with a blast of heat. The light was blinding compared to the gloom of the boat, and the humidity was like walking into a wall.

"Alright, let's go." Regina said, and was the first leap out of the boat.


	2. Well this is familiar

Regina landed up to her knees in water, and immediately raised her rifle, looking around. But a moment later, one of the other soldiers almost knocked her over as he jumped off the boat himself.

"Keep moving!" One of the soldiers in the boat protested.l

Regina walked to shore, getting out of their way. Oh, the rushing of the inexperienced. This rushing to get everything set up was exactly what they tried the last time they came to this time, and that didn't exactly end well. But this was the military, chain of command had to be respected, so there wasn't all that much Regina could do about it. No matter what Regina said, the sergeant would just claim to 'take it under advisement' and nothing different would happen. Gotta love the strict enforcement of the chain of command.

Regina's boat was one of five, all of which were now spilling out soldiers. As per their orders, everyone made it to shore and immediately formed a loose semicircle, establishing a perimeter for the equipment.

They had landed in a clearing, mostly of dirt and rocks. They faced thick prehistoric jungle dozens of feet ahead ahead – visibility through the trees was maybe ten feet in the thinnest of areas.

Regina instinctively looked down, scanning the area for tracks. Several dinosaurs had clearly been here, but the ground was too sandy to keep a definitive footprint. Could have been raptors, or they could have been something harmless.

"All clear!" One of the sergeants from the other boats called out. Regina gritted her teeth. Yelling was not the thing to do here.

Regina glanced at the water. Apart from the transport boats, there were two larger vessels. One carried the timegate they'd be taking back to their own time, and the other carried the _One Way Ticket_ equipment. The pilot of the equipment boat signalled that he heard the sergeant, and slowly drove the boat as close to shore as he could. Once it gently dug in to the shore, the pilot cut the engines.

Well thank god, one less thing to draw attention to them.

The technicians emerged from the boat, stepping onto its deck,where crates and computer systems were either already set up or just stored for transport. It was odd to have computer systems set up on deck like that, but this boat had been built for this one specific purpose.

Some of the technicians stayed on the boat to check on the systems, while others grabbed crates and equipment, jumping off the boat and bringing them to shore.

"How long will this take?" The yelling sergeant asked one of the technicians.

"If everything checks out, five minutes." The technician replied.

From the crates emerged six pieces of equipment. Five of them were rectangular, with sloping tops. The technicians carefully placed them in a circle, the slopes all facing inwards. The sixth piece of equipment was a four foot obelisk, for lack of a better word. A long smooth shaft, with a basketball-sized sphere sitting on top. This done, the technician began to drag a cable from the boat to this setup, apparently the power source.

"Double check, is this the center of the displaced zone?" One of the technicians asked another.

"Let's see." The second one replied, pulling out a PDA.

"I saw something moving!" One of the soldiers suddenly yelled.

Regina quickly brought her rifle up, scanning the jungle ahead of them. The rest of the soldiers did the same, though many of them looked like they'd rather throw their weapons down and get back on the boats.

"Where, I don't see anything!" Another yelled.

"I don't know, it was quick, ran that way!" The first said, motioning to a vague area of the trees.

"Quiet!" Regina demanded. "We can't hear them over you yelling!"

"Don't speak out of turn, soldier!" One of the sergeants barked. "Hurry up and get that thing set up, people!"

"Working, working!" One of the technicians yelled, the bunch of them connecting all the equipment.

Regina shook her head in amazement. This is exactly what happened the last time they were here, first encounter with some kind of dinosaur within ten minutes of landfall. But did they listen to her? No, of course not. They asked Regina along for her experience, but they didn't care for her advice. Amazing.

"There, over there!" A soldier yelled, pointing with his rifle into the trees.

"Hold your fire!" A sergeant yelled. "Shooting at them will just piss them off and bring them all on top of us!"

"No! We shoot them now while they're at a distance!" A soldier protested.

Before Regina could offer her advice – shoot them the moment you see them – several raptors burst out of the forest, in front of the part of the semicircle closest to the trees. The soldiers screamed – either to get everyone's attention or just in fear, Regina wasn't sure – and opened fire. The raptors made it several feet, but were cut down by the rifle rounds. Still, the soldiers quickly backed away, panicking and breaking formation.

"Keep your damn positions!" A sergeant yelled, barely audible over the gunfire.

Then, more came, attacking from several dozen feet to the left of the first pack. Like Regina had seen a million times, they weren't just running in – they were strategizing.

Regina opened fire, cutting down three raptors in three short, controlled bursts. Several other soldiers did the same, though most panicked, spraying inaccurately as they backed away.

Suddenly, Regina heard a loud scream. The raptors attacking from the first pack made it to the line and had pounced one of the soldiers, pinning him and impaling him on their massive toe claws. And at that point, all hell broke loose. Nearby soldiers ran in terror from him, and though others continued shooting as they backed away, formation quickly broke.

The ear-piercing gunshots were soon joined by several screams of pain and terror. Regina tried to aim for raptors that were close to targeting people, but too many raptors were coming for her for her to spend too much time on that.

After dropping another raptor, her rifle clicked empty. She had more clips, but a raptor was already only a couple dozen feet away and running for her. Regina backed up, waiting for it. This took split second timing...

The raptor jumped, and Regina made her move. She quickly strafed to the side, crouching down and pulling out her stun rod. As the raptor was about to land, she swiped at it. There was a blinding flash of light as the charge passed into the creature. It shrieked, limbs and tail flailing. It landed on its feet, immediately tripped, and crashed into the ground, spasming.

Regina quickly went to reload her rifle as two more raptors focused on her. They charged. Regina scrambled to reload. She brought her rifle up as the raptors were inside a dozen feet, and dropped them both. The second one went down, but still slid towards her from the momentum. Regina was tripped up, and fell on her stomach.

"Help!" Someone screamed.

Regina quickly rolled into a seated position, and saw one of the technicians running from a raptor. As Regina brought her rifle up, the raptor jumped for him. By a stroke of luck, the raptor underestimated the jump, only managing to smack onto him from behind rather than land on him. Still, he fell onto his stomach. The raptor stepped on his arm, moved to put its other foot on his back... and Regina put a burst of rounds into its side. It fell over right away, and that was the end of that one.

Suddenly, the raptors stopped their attack. A few still went for the remaining soldiers who were still shooting, but most of them just paused, listening. After a moment of that, they all turned tail and ran far off to the right, back into the jungle, not defending themselves even as some of the soldiers continued to shoot at them. The last of them disappeared into the trees, and that was it.

Regina's relief was brief, even as the remaining soldiers celebrated. This happened the last time they were here, too, and the reason the raptors ran off that time...

"Wow, thanks!"

It was the technician Regina saved. Short blond hair, rather scrawny, looking very odd in his standard issue military uniform.

"Don't mention it." Regina said, scanning the jungle.

"...hey, cheer up!" The tech said. "We scared them off, and-"

The ground shook.

"...what the hell was that?" The tech asked.

The other soldiers asked similar things amongst themselves. Regina just backed away, the waves lapping at her heels, and raised her rifle.

The ground continued to shake. Slow, rhythmic vibrations, getting ever closer. The soldiers quickly clued in to what this could be.

"Pack up, let's get the hell out of here!" One screamed, among the other similar suggestions.

Regina cursed under her breath. If they didn't already have its attention, their continuing to scream would certainly bring it closer. And sure enough, the lumbering footsteps began to pick up speed and get closer.

"...maybe we should-" The tech began.

Suddenly, it burst from the trees. Not a tyrannosaurus, no, it was bigger. Not a gigantosaurus either, this was something else. Its muzzle, tail, and body were all longer than a tyrannosaur's, as well as the entire creature being proportionally bigger.

It stopped dead once it emerged from the jungle, looking at everyone. Some of the soldiers were frozen in surprise, though most began either opening fire or running in all directions. The rifle rounds hit their marks, but the creature's hide was too tough for them to do much to. It let out an enraged roar, and charged for them, heading straight for the boats.

Regina was well off to the left of the boats, so she opened fire on the creature, hoping continued fire might get a bullet lucky enough to hurt it. But as it chased down its first soldier and chomped down on him in mid-run, eating his torso in a split second, it was clear that her rifle would do no good.

"We need to go, come on!" Regina yelled to everyone, yanking the tech back. The soldiers didn't really heed her call – they were scattering in all directions, some going into the jungle.

"We have to get to the boats, we can't outrun it!" The tech said, clearly panicking.

"...if you want to try to get to one, feel free to try!" Regina said.

The creature managed to chase down another soldier, and after it swallowed that meal, it turned and locked eyes on Regina and the tech.

"...time to go!" Regina said, giving him a final yank before turning and running. The tech quickly followed.

They had about a hundred yards' head start, but the creature could close that distance in just a few seconds. Regina and the tech ran into the jungle, hoping the trees would slow it down.

'How can this be happening _again_?' Regina thought in disbelief.

The trees did indeed slow the creature down, allowing them to keep just ahead of it by several yards. After almost a minute of running, the ground dropped into a rocky ledge, an incline of maybe 50 degrees and dropping almost ten feet.

"Come on!" Regina yelled, just barely managing to keep standing as she ran down the incline. The tech followed close behind, but lost his footing and rolled most of the way.

The creature closed the distance, but the ground gave way beneath its final step. It slid down the incline and fell to its side, taking a small tree down with him. The splitting wood rang out like a thunderclap.

Regina dragged the tech to his feet, and quickly looked around. A few dozen yards away, it almost looked like there was a small cave entrance in the incline.

"Come on!" She yelled, running for it.

The creature let out an enraged roar and scrambled to its feet. It took a second to look around, but spotted Regina and the tech quickly, and ran after them.

It was indeed something of a cave. It was maybe four feet in diameter, and stretched in five or six feet. It descended downwards slightly, so its floor had rainwater pooled several inches high. Regina dove into it, the tech right behind her. They scrambled to the very bottom of the cave, and turned to face the entrance.

Small chunks of dirt fell from the ceiling as the creature approached.

"Great, eaten or crushed, great choice!" The tech said, terror lacing his voice.

The creature did its best to crouch and look into the cave, but couldn't really crouch low enough to reach its massive head in. It tried, getting its muzzle one or two feet in, but it couldn't manage to get any further.

After several painfully tense minutes of this, it gave up. It stood up, gave a disappointed roar, and lumbered back the way they came.


	3. We're all kinds of screwed

The tech stared out the entrance of their cave, his eyes wide and his face white. Regina kept her rifle ready, just in case, but there wasn't all that big a risk of anything attacking them right now. That creature was much too big to get them, and no raptors would dare come this close with that thing stomping around.

"How... how long should we wait?" The tech stammered.

"Not too long." Regina replied. "If that thing did go away, raptors could return at any time."

"Alright..." The tech said. "But... did that thing just go back to our boats?"

"I think so." Regina said. "We might have landed in its territory."

"...so we're screwed, then!" The tech said. "We need to get back there and send this place back to the... oh god..." His face went even more pale. "...what if they did it already? What if we're in the Cretaceous right now? We're screwed!"

Regina groaned at his panicking. Though... that wasn't out of the realm of possibility. Her superiors were already willing to leave Dylan and Paula to die in the Cretaceous, so who's to say they wouldn't leave Regina and this man behind too?

"...quiet, you'll attract predators." Regina said, keeping her eyes on the entrance of the cave.

"...sorry." The tech said, embarrassedly collecting himself. "...I'm Chris, by the way."

"Right. Regina." Regina replied. "Alright, let's go."

"...but that thing can't have gone far. It'll see us!" Chris protested.

"If it went to the boats, it's going after the rest of us. Do you want it on your head that you sat here and let them become dinner?" Regina asked.

"...what do we do? How can we beat it?" Chris asked.

"I don't know." Regina admitted, remembering her past encounters with such superpredators. She had no gas valves to set ablaze this time. "And I doubt they do either, which is why we need to go help."

There was a pause.

"...alright." Chris finally said.

Regina emerged first from the cave, rifle up, and looked around. The creature was nowhere to be found, and there were no signs of raptors. Regina paused, then beckoned for Chris to follow. He looked like he'd rather stay in the hole forever, but he slowly emerged and followed her.

They slowly made their way through the forest, Regina with her rifle at the ready and Chris nervously following close. He stepped on far too many twigs and dried leaves for Regina's liking. He was making noise to attract everything in the area. But, luckily, there was no sign of anything, and the heavy footsteps were nowhere to be heard. For the moment, it appeared that they were safe.

After several tense minutes, they made it to the clearing.

Broken half eaten bodies were strewn about, blood soaking the sand, along with several dead raptors. The whole area smelled of spent ammunition and blood. The massive creature's footprints littered the area, some bodies crushed into them.

"Oh crap, no!" Chris exclaimed.

Before Regina could admonish him for making such noise, he ran to the _One Way Ticket_ equipment. Or at least, what was left of it. The obelisk part had several bullet holes in it, the cables had been crushed by a footstep of the massive creature, and the its power supply was on its side and mangled beyond repair. Regina also noticed that two of the boats were on their sides and mangled beyond repair, but thankfully, the timegate boat as safe.

"Oooohhh crap oh crap oh crap, oh no." Chris said, prying open a panel of the obelisk. "No, no, no..."

"...good news?" Regina asked.

"Does it look like... no, it's not good news!" Chris said, panic clear in his voice. "These damn... see this?" He yanked what looked like some kind of drive belt from the obelisk, broken. "Useless. And... and these?" One by one, he reached in and tossed out a total of four bullet-riddled electromagnets. "Nope! And... and the power supply!" He motioned at its remains. "The whole plan is done!"

"Calm down, we can get more of these." Regina hissed, looking around for signs of anything attracted by his rant. "Three million years plus a few minutes? We're not exactly on a time constraint here."

But suddenly, the footsteps began to get closer again.

"...couldn't disagree more." Chris said his voice breaking with fear.

The footsteps were getting closer, but it was impossible to tell from which area of the jungle the creature was coming from. There was only one safe option.

"Into a boat!" Regina ordered, yanking Chris from the obelisk. He stumbled from fear, but followed Regina as she ran into the water, noisily splashing as she ran for the nearest boat – the same transport boat she came from. She climbed in, with Chris close behind. She helped him in, and just as he climbed in, the massive creature entered the clearing.

Chris opened his mouth to panic, but Regina quickly clasped her hand over it and dragged him to the front of the boat.

"Quiet! That thing can't see us from this angle!" She whispered angrily.

And indeed it couldn't. On her knees, Chris seated in front of her with her hand over his mouth, she watched the creature's legs slowly walk in their general direction. She had to restrain Chris, but she herself began to feel fear. Sweat began to drip down her face. How developed was this one's sense of smell? She knew the Rex was second only to the turkey vulture in that aspect, if Jurassic Park was factual, but what about this thing? Could it distinguish them from all the other human smells in this clearing?

The creature stopped just a few feet from the waterline, and all was deathly silent save for the gentle splashing of the water on the shore.

Finally, the creature began to walk to the right, disappearing from view. Chris began to calm down, but immediately tensed up again when it came back into view, a dozen or so feet further away, sniffing the body of a raptor. Regina tightened her hold on Chris as they both realized the same thing – its head was near the ground, it could see them from this angle if it turned around.

But it didn't. After sniffing the body for a few seconds it stood right up, and walked back into the forest. After almost a minute, its footsteps were gone.

Seconds passed like hours as the two of them watched the empty shore. But finally, Regina released Chris. Chris immediately began gasping for air, almost hyperventilating from the ordeal. Regina, meanwhile, looked at the broken _One Way Ticket_ equipment. What were they going to do now? They could take the Timegate back and get new equipment, but after what happened, she doubted her superiors would try this again after this colossal failure. That meant trying to make repairs.

"What parts would you need to fix that thing?" Regina asked quietly.

Chris looked at her like she was insane. When he saw she was serious, he just shrugged helplessly.

"I guess... four electromagnets?" He asked. "Some cables, a new power supply, and a new drive belt. And that's assuming I didn't miss any damage. Why? Know a good hardware store around here?"

"As a matter of fact, I do." Regina replied. "Got a map of this world?"

This world had several Third Energy research installations that could potentially have those parts, but what interested Regina was the place she left Dylan and Paula. Maybe they were in a moment of time before the explosion. Maybe she could move that computer, change the past.

Chris pulled out his PDA and handed it to Regina.

"Just what you did up for us." He said.

Neither Regina nor Dylan had the foresight of taking one of the maps when they came here, so she had to give her superiors one she drew from memory.

"Right here." Regina said, pointing to where she left Dylan and Paula. "This is where the Timegate I used was. It's our best bet of finding the kinds of parts you need."

Chris's face said it all. That installation was quite a distance from where they were. Getting there would be an ordeal.

"It's our surest bet." Regina said.

Chris just gulped nervously, and took his PDA back.

Regina felt somewhat guilty. They could probably find those parts at a much closer installation. Every step they took in this world could be their last, and the destination she chose was one of the furthest possible. But she didn't care. She made a promise, and she intended to keep it.

"That thing must be gone by now, come on." Regina said, and began to walk off the boat.


End file.
